U.S. stock indices were bouncing around after the opening bell, after the U.S. added more jobs than expected in January and the unemployment rate inched higher. Of course, government bonds sold off, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note, which moves inversely to bond prices, climbing to 1.88%.

The average hourly earnings jumped 0.5% in January to $24.75, the best showing since November 2008, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

Moody’s (MCO) said it expects revenue growth in 2015 despite economic and foreign-exchange challenges while reporting that its profit rose 14% in the fourth quarter. The company is the parent of Moody’s Investors Service,

Germany on Thursday dismissed Greece’s request for bridge funding that would give it three months to negotiate new bailout terms, insisting that the newly-elected government implement the conditions tied to its agreed program.

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) is raising its dividend 17% and setting aside an additional $1 billion to buy back its stock, bolstering its return to shareholders.

Besides naming COO Lance Fritz as its new chief executive, Union Pacific (UNP) said its board approved a 10% increase in the quarterly dividend and announced a $4.3 billion capital-spending plan for this year that includes increased outlays for safety equipment.

Columbia Pipeline Partners (CPPL) went public Thursday night, the first MLP to do so in 2015. IPO was priced at $23, raising more than $1 billion by selling 46.8 million shares

Bonds are surging Wednesday after some disappointing economic data started off the third quarter this morning. The 10-year Treasury note is up 24/32 in price, per Tradweb data, cutting its yield to 2.42%. The 30-year bond is up 1 12/32 to yield 3.138%, the lowest intraday yield in nearly a month. The 2-year yield, now closely watched as an indicator of Federal Reserve rate-hike expectations, is down to 0.524% from 0.575% to start the day.

The gains come after private payroll firm ADP reported that the U.S. added 213,000 new jobs in September, which narrowly beat consensus expectations but still let down those who were hoping for a more robust sign of hiring ahead of the Labor Department’s September jobs report that’d due out Friday. Later this morning the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index fell to 56.6 in September from 59 in August.

The bond gains are coming as stocks are having a rough day amid worries about lackluster global growth.

Treasury yields continue to drift higher as everyone awaits this week’s two big market-moving events: the European Central Bank’s policy meeting tomorrow and the Friday morning release of the May nonfarm payroll report here in the U.S. The ECB meeting will reveal whether the central bank will start off another stimulus program, in the form of more bond buying or pushing the deposit rate into negative territory, which would presumably push European sovereign bond rates lower. The presumed knock-on effect of such stimulus would be to raise the global bid for Treasuries as an alternative, pulling U.S. bond yields lower too. Then the jobs data will give us the latest window into how the U.S. economy is faring with its winter weather woes (and attendant economic excuses) fully behind it. Treasury yields seem poised to rise further if the report looks strong.

In the meantime, the U.S. saw yet more mixed results from the latest round of undercard economic data out today. This morning, payroll services firm ADP reported that the US added a disappointing 179,000 private-sector jobs in May, falling just over 40,000 short of both economist estimates and the revised April figure. That report is seen as a harbinger of the Labor Department’s employment report that comes out Friday. Then the Institute for Supply Management, still recovering from its manufacturing data gaffes two days ago, said its non-manufacturing index rose to 56.3 in May from 55.2 in April. We’ll assume the ISM double-checked its calculations this time before releasing the report.

Treasury yields had been drifting higher this week after touching 11-month lows last week. They were moving higher again early today, then fell on the ADP report, then resumed their rise following the ISM data. The 10-year note is currently down 4/32 in price on the day to lift its yield back above the 2.6% level to 2.608%, per Tradeweb data. The 30-year note is down 5/32 to yield 3.443%.

Treasury bond prices are lower Thursday after the Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims totaled 304,000 last week. That was up 2,000 from the week before, but the four-week moving average dropped by 4,750 to 312,000, which marked the lowest average level seen since October 2007. These sorts of data points receive greater scrutiny these days, now that the Fed has explicitly stated that it’s taking into account much more than just the monthly unemployment rate when gauging the health of the labor market, and the efficacy of its easy-money policies in helping that market.

The five-year Treasury note is down 7/32 in price to yield 1.701%, per Tradeweb data, and the 10-year is down 10/32 to yield 2.673%

Treasuries just strengthened after the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index dropped to 51.6 in February from 54.0 in January, falling short of economists’ expectations. The survey measures service-sector companies in the U.S., and a number over 50 indicates expansion. Naturally the weather took some of the blame: “The majority of respondents’ comments indicate a slowing in the rate of growth month over month of business activity. Some of the respondents attribute this to weather conditions,” the ISM said. “Overall respondents’ comments reflect cautiousness regarding business conditions and the economy.”

The survey’s employment index plunged to 47.5 from 56.4 in January. Earlier today, ADP’s latest report showed private-sector jobs increased by 139,000 in February, also falling short of economist expectations. The report comes two days before the Labor Department’s February nonfarm employment report.

Treasuries had slipped earlier this morning but rebounded following the ISM report, with the 10-year note now unchanged in price on the day to yield 2.69%, per Tradeweb data, and the 30-year bond up 4/32 to yield 3.63%

Russ Koesterich, BlackRock‘s global chief investment strategist, is out with his latest weekly investment commentary, and you won’t find it particularly flattering if you’re a Treasury bond. Quoth Koesterich:

At current levels, we simply do not believe that Treasuries look attractive and expect yields to remain range-bound at least for the short-term. There has been some downward pressure on yields thanks to some disappointing economic data. However, with manufacturing data still strong and with a Fed that appears determined to slow the pace of its asset purchases by early 2014, there is a limit to how low bond yields are likely to go. At the same time, we expect any rise in rates to be measured.

Recently, we’ve been talking quite a bit about the slow-growth nature of the U.S. and global economies. A closer look at the data reveals an emerging divergence between different areas of the economy. Specifically, the U.S. economy appears to be growing at two speeds—manufacturing is expanding, while the labor market and household spending remains subdued….

This phenomenon is not isolated to the United States. In China, growth rebounded nicely in the second quarter, but continues to be led by investment and infrastructure spending rather than consumer spending. We’re seeing some similar trends in Europe. In Spain, for example, the economy is growing modestly, but is being led by exports while unemployment remains close to record levels.

Ultimately, this divergence is not sustainable and needs to be solved. Either the global and U.S. economic recoveries will broaden and we’ll begin seeing improvements in the pace of jobs growth and consumer spending, or the rebound in manufacturing will level out as inventory levels start to climb too high. In our view, we continue to believe we will see a very modest improvement in the pace of economic growth in 2014.

Treasury prices rose after the Labor Department just reported a slightly smaller-than-expected 169,000 rise in August’s non-farm payrolls, which included a sharp downward revision of July’s job gains from an initially reported 162,000 to 104,000. Consensus expectations for August has predicted gains in the range of 180,000 jobs. The headline unemployment rate fell again to 7.3% from 7.4% in July, but the labor force participation rate fell to 63.2% in August from 63.4% in July.

The ten-year Treasury yield had crested at 3.005% overnight, per Tradeweb data, topping the 3% mark for the first time since July 2011. It had slipped to 2.955% immediately before the release of the jobs report and fell further on the jobs report to 2.886%, per Tradweb data, as markets question whether the data will be strong enough to induce the Fed to start tapering its bond purchases this month.

After all that suspense, a snoozer. In the most closely watched monthly employment report in recent memory, there aren’t any big surprises after all, as the Labor Department just reported that the U.S. added 175,000 jobs in May, barely beating consensus estimates of 169,000, while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.6% from 7.5% in April. April’s jobs gains were revised a bit lower to 149,000 from 165,000.

The fact that the number came in so close to expectations should at least calm market nerves today after May’s bond selloff and some recent tough days for stocks. No markets really react directly to the jobs data anymore – they react to how they expect the Federal Reserve will react to the jobs data. This number shouldn’t really move the dial on the Fed’s timing to start tapering its monthly bond purchases, which is what markets really care about at this point.

Here’s David Ader of CRT Capital with his initial take:

A mixed report, but slightly more bullish for bonds than not with light downward revisions, no wage gains, no increase in workweek and the teeny uptick in UNR. That uptick is about the small increase in labor participation which strikes as underscoring just how poor that really is as opposed to a signal of job confidence.

From a market perspective this does NOT enhance prospects for a tapering earlier than has been expected, i.e. Sep/Oct, and sort of continues the Fed’s approach that will give the market less insight into tapering details as opposed to more. That said, 175k job gains are not poor, but the details of no wage gains and the low quality jobs that make up the bulk of the NFP surely are part of ongoing tedium.

Treasuries are doing very little with this sort of number to a tad weaker. That probably makes some sense as, again, it doesn’t diffuse tapering concerns and there is supply to buy next week.

A swing and a miss! The Labor Department just reported that the U.S. added 88,000 new jobs in March, well below consensus expectations that started the week around 200,000 but had been scaled back after some weak related data.

In the silver-linings department, the unemployment rate still fell a bit to 7.6% from 7.7% in February, but even that was largely because 496,000 people dropped out of the labor force. Also the figure for February job gains was revised higher to 268,000 from an initially reported 236,000, and the January figure to 148,000 from 119,000.

In a nutshell, “this is a very weak labor market,” in the words just spoken by economist Martin Feldstein on CNBC, who said current Fed policy isn’t proving effective enough at boosting employment while it risks creating asset bubbles.

The final pre-election reading on the monthly employment front is less of a surprise than the last one. The Labor Department reports that the U.S. added 171, jobs in October, above consensus expectations of 125,000, but the unemployment rate ticked higher to 7.9% from 7.8% in September.

The report produced further good news in the form of upward revisions to the last two reports. September payrolls were adjusted higher to a gain of 148,000 from an initially reported 114,000, and August payrolls were revised higher to 192,000 from 142,000.

The private sector was essentially responsible for the entirety of the job gains, reporting an increase of 184,000 jobs, while government jobs fell by 13,000. The U-6, a broader measure that gauges long-term unemployment by factoring in those who may be working part-time because they can’t find full-time jobs, fell just a bit to 14.6% from 14.7%. Average private nonfarm hourly earnings fell by 1 cent to $23.78.

Treasuries fell on the news, with the yield on the 10-year notes up four basis points to 1.77%, per Bloomberg data.